The Path Unending (A Cultivation Quest)

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After a moment's consideration, you pause and reach towards the side of your head. Your bronze nails make quick work of whatever obstruction had formed in your ear canals that caused you to mishear your senior sister. After shaking your head to jostle free any remnants, you let out a sigh of relief and look to Sister Xiong once again. "I beg your pardon, Senior Sister, but could you repeat yourself?" you answer. "I must have misinterpreted your words."

Sister Xiong's gaze is pitiless and her arched eyebrow alone is enough to send a chill down your spine. But she obliges you. "You have been called upon, Kong Zhi," she repeats. "Make yourself ready, for at the end of the week you will depart these halls by word of his imperial glory."

...oh. So you had heard Sister Xiong correctly before. You are suddenly very glad that you are seated. "I… what?" you manage to mumble out. "His Imperial Glory has tasked me with an assignment?"

A deep crease forms in Sister Xiong's forehead as she frowns at your words. When she answers though, her tone contains naught but it's usual businesslike briskness. "Not you, specifically," she states. "But the Heart as a whole, and the Heart has, in turn, selected you."

"But… but I…" you stammer. "I… I've not yet even climbed to the Seventh Circle!" You have no idea why that is the objection that leaves your lips, but it is the one that stands out the most in your mind. The Seventh Circle is comprised of those who are ready and willing to leave the sect for assignments. You are not yet a member of the Seventh Circle. Ergo, you are not ready to leave the sect for assignments.

Sister Xiong seems unmoved by your words. "Indeed, you have not," comes her answer, the vague disdain in her voice leaving no doubt who she blames that on. "But the Seventh is currently engaged. Now it is the Eighth's turn to rise."

"The Seventh is engaged?!" you cannot help but echo, your shocked tone bordering on open disrespect. "All of them?! What-"

"Enough," Sister Xiong interrupts, her voice as hard as iron. "I understand your reluctance, but you are a Caretaker, and you will conduct yourself as such."

You swallow thickly and snap into a bow. She continues as you do, "With the Seventh, Sixth, and much of the Fifth engaged as they are, it is time for those in the Eighth to answer the call. It is time for you to answer the call, Kong Zhi."

The blunt honesty in her words is enough to render you speechless. You rise from the bow and stare up at Sister Xiong, goggle-eyed, before slowly looking down at the map before you. "Sister?" you say, fighting and failing to turn your voice into anything but a high-pitched squeak. "What exactly is the assignment?"

There is silence in the briefing room as Sister Xiong gathers her words. After a moment's pause, she takes a seat on the opposite side of the table and looks at you over steepled fingers. "Tell me, Kong Zhi- what do you know about the relationship between the Seven Stars and the Radiant Empire?"

You can only blink owlishly at the complete non-answer to your question. Some small, foolish part of you wants to open your mouth and demand that Sister Xiong actually answer your very simple request for information, but it is beaten back by the rest of you, which is attempting to regain its equilibrium. You have been bordering on rudeness with Sister Xiong. It would be best to simply answer her and hope that your own answers will be revealed in time rather than continue to press your luck.

"Not a great deal," you answer. When Sister Xiong sends you a look of silent recrimination, you hold in a sigh and plumb the depths of your mind for any possible nugget of information that might satisfy your senior. "I know that the seven sects of the Radiant Empire- the Seven Stars- kneel before the Dawnstone Seat and no other. I know that at times, nobles of the Steadfast Court have attempted to shackle the Sect's freedoms and have been stopped by the Dawnstone Seat's command every time. I know that the Seven Stars can be called upon in times of strife to support His armies. But aside from that, I know nothing."

Sister Xiong considers your words. "A decent answer, and a better one than I expected," she answers, her head inclining in a slight nod. "Indeed, all of those things are true. The Seven Stars of the Radiant Empire answer to none but his imperial glory and have since the time for the Emperor-In-Radiance. The Sects and the Dawnstone Seat are intertwined in ways that most cannot fathom, and have been since before the Dawnstone Seat was even created. It is a most unusual arrangement."

"It is?" you echo, your curiosity piqued despite Sister Xiong's utter refusal to move the conversation closer to your original query.

"It is," she repeats. "In other lands, such an arrangement would be seen as barely constrained chaos at best. They would wonder why the Sects are allotted so much freedom, or they would wonder why the Sects have need of the Steadfast Court at all. But the Emperor-In-Radiance knew that for the talents of Artists to be best leveraged, the Sects could not be constrained by the earthly concerns of government, nor could they function properly were they to be shackled to Seated institutions."

"...and what service did the Emperor-In-Radiance wish to leverage the talents of Artists towards?" you respond. Somehow, you feel you are circling closer and closer to the point of this conversation.

A small smile is the reward for your question. "Nothing less than protecting the Empire itself from its greatest threats."

Her words draw another frown as you think on her words- which make very little sense to you. If the Sects were founded to war with the Empire's many foes, would it not be better to keep them in lockstep with the Steadfast Court? No one fights an enemy by deploying an army and telling them to wander around aimlessly, after all.

"The greatest threat to the Empire has never been Spirit Beasts," Sister Xiong continues after reading the look on your face. "It has never been Waste Barbarians, Northern Savages, or the monstrosities that crawl from the Laughingstar. They are threats to be sure, but they can be stopped. They can be and have been overcome with the force of arms. But our greatest threat? Our greatest threat comes from within. It cannot be fought off or bargained with. It comes from the citizens themselves. It is-"

"-Vestiges," you finish, mumbling the answer before Sister Xiong can speak it.

Your senior gives another graceful nod at your words. "Indeed. To trained Artists, a Vestige may be nothing more than a distraction, but to a mortal, it is an unconquerable terror. A single Servant's Vestige can eradicate an entire farming village in under a day. A Soldier's Vestige can strike terror in an entire city, and a Farmer's? One Farmer's Vestige can break a unit of the Glorious Vanguard."

"Hunting Vestiges may solve problems for a time," Sister Xiong continues. "But there will always be more. There will always be untrained Artists striving for greater power throughout the Empire, and when they fail, they wreak havoc on his dominion. To truly cut off the threat of Vestiges, there is only one solution: education."

"And so the Emperor-In-Radiance forged the Seven Stars. They were given freedom above all others, respect throughout the width and breadth of the Empire, power beyond the wildest dreams of mortals. And in return, the compact was forged, with one duty being given to the Seven Stars above all others: to test and train all those with the Spark that they find."

"It is this duty that his imperial glory thinks we have been lax in," Sister Xiong states with a huff. "It is his opinion that the testers and the Seven Stars that accompany them have been derelict in their duty to plumb the depths of the Empire for Sparks. And it is towards this duty that you are being dispatched."

Sister Xiong turns her focus to the map, and you follow her gaze. "A new wave of testers has been commissioned by the Emperor-In-Steel," she states. "And they are travelling the width and breadth of the Empire to find every single soul who carries the spark. Each of these testers is to be accompanied by a trio of Artists by his decree. You will be a member of one of the next trios to be dispatched."

She taps a spot on the map. You look at the indicated space, finding Sister Xiong's long fingers pointed at a city located deep within the Forest of Pearls. "Your team will depart from the Heart with all due haste and rendezvous with your tester here, in Mockingjay, at the House of Moon's Eye," she states, her finger tracing a route along the map as she speaks. "He will be accompanied by a trio from the Resolute March, so watch your words carefully. You will spend several days here as your tester goes through the underbelly of Mockingjay with a fine-toothed comb, searching for any souls with the Spark missed on previous passes."

"After that, you will head west," Sister Xiong continues. Her finger sketches out a new path, leading you away from Mockingjay, through the Brightmaples. "With stops in the Honeydrenched Hills and Jingyi's Summit. From there, you will continue south, stopping at each village you can find in the foothills of the Brightmaples, before reaching Twelve Fields. There, you will turn custody of the tester to disciples of the Whispering Jackal before returning to the Heart in the most expedient manner possible."

You trace the route with your own finger. A dozen questions flow through your mind, but only one manages to escape. "Sister Xiong? Why are they sending me?"

Your senior is silent, leaving you to elaborate. "I… I am no frontline combatant, trained in navigating through the Forest of Pearls. I am not skilled in the diplomatic arts. I am… I seem ill-suited for this task. So why is it being given to me? Is it not a better fit for the Imperial Hand or the Stone Fist?"

Sister Xiong studies you in silence for a long moment. Eventually, she shakes her head. "You think too little of yourself Kong Zhi, though I will concede that you have some small point," she allows. "And indeed, members of the Fist and the Hand are being dispatched as well. You will likely be assigned to a trio with members of those courts. But you are forgetting one key detail."

A ghost of a smile crosses Sister Xiong's face. "Sending the Eighth out on assignment this early… it is not usually done. Were the need not pressing, it would never even be considered. But if Elder Hotei is to be believed, it is not only a pressing need, it is a vital one- and that makes this a very unusual situation."

"And when there is an unusual situation, upon whom does the sect call?" Sister Xiong asks.

You let out a low breath, knowing where she is going with this. "They call on the Caretakers."

"Indeed they do," comes the answer. "Now, if you have any questions pertaining to your assignment, now is the time to ask them."

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